Effect of cold ischemic times and time after transplantation on regional myocardial motion after heart transplantation

Background Transplant rejection affects the course and survival after heart transplantation (HTx). As a non-invasive alternative to myocardial biopsy, which is the gold standard used for screening and for the diagnosis of rejection, regional left ventricular (LV) myocardial motion analysis has been suggested. But myocardial biopsy is invasive and its diagnostic value is restricted by high sample errors due to the patchy distribution of early rejection. Alterations of regional wall motion [1], especially in diastole, might be sensitive for the diagnosis. However, evaluation by echocardiography is limited in this context and LV motion after HTx differs from the motion of native hearts. We assessed the influence of cold ischemic time (CIT) and time after HTx on myocardial velocities in stable HTx patients.